PALENQUE. 29 



The inscribed panel let into the back wall of the Sanctuary is formed of three slabs 

 of stone (see Plates LXXIII. to LXXVIL). The right-hand slab (c, Plate LXXIII.) 

 is now in the National Museum at Washington, the centre slab (b) is in the Museum 

 in the city of Mexico, and the left-hand slab (a) only is still in place. 



In the western inner chamber is a block of masonry built against the back wall 

 which may have been used as an altar. 



There are several T-shaped holes in the walls, and on the north side of the inner 

 corridor are several small holes pierced through the top of the roof as though intended 

 for the escape of smoke. 



There are stapled niches on the inner side of the large doorway through the main 

 wall and on the inner side of the piers of the facade ; each pier has also, high up on 

 its outer face, a large niche holding two staples. 



Two rows of wooden roof-struts had spanned the vaults of the roof. 



It is probable that the sanctuary was formerly paved with stone flags, but it is now 

 a yawning hole, the work of Antonio del Rio, or of some more recent treasure-hunter, 

 and nearly every building in the place has suffered in the same way. 



The two trefoil-shaped passages in the roof above the main wall are open to the 

 outer corridor, but have been walled across on the other face. 



At the northern base of the mound is a collection of smaller mounds, in one of 

 which a few chambers can be seen. 



On the east side the mound is joined by a terraced platform or causeway to the slope 

 of the high hill which juts out from the range. 



of the sculptured slabs now under consideration, he ascribes them to the Temple of the Sun, and, moreover, 

 gives a restoration of the sanctuary of the Temple of the Sun with the sculptured slabs in place. I was at first 

 inclined to accept Stephens's arrangement, the more willingly as the people of Santo Domingo still assert that 

 these slabs now embedded in the walls of their church were taken from the Temple of the Sun. However, since 

 my return home I have made careful measurements of the casts of the slabs and compared them with Mr. Price's 

 plans of the temples, and it appears that these slabs are a few inches too large to fit into place on the face of 

 the sanctuary of the Temple of the Sun, but would just fit into place on the Temple of the Cross. We there- 

 fore have, on one side, the authority of Stephens and Catherwood, who, however, did not visit Palenque until 

 some years after the removal of the slabs, and the belief current at the present time amongst the inhabitants 

 of Santo Domingo, none of whom had seen the slabs in their original position, — and on the other side, the fact 

 that the slabs are, according to Mr. Price's plans, a few inches too large for the Temple of the Sun, the evidence 

 of Dupaix, who saw the slabs in place, and that of Waldeck, who did not see them in place, but who not only 

 ascribes them to the Temple of the Cross, but gives drawings of the shattered fragments of two other sculp- 

 tured slabs which he ascribes to the Temple of the Sun. It seems to me that the balance of evidence is 

 against Stephens's arrangement, and I have therefore included these slabs amongst the sculptures belonging to 

 the Temple of the Cross. It is to be hoped that the nest visitor to Palenque will carefully remeasure both 

 the sanctuaries and the slabs, so as to remove all possible doubt as to their correct position. 



